Heartbeat
by RhulainTheCheetahwolf
Summary: He was going to kill Sideswipe...But he really shouldn't have been so gullible anyway. Set in G1.


Go easy this is my first transformers fanfic. And oped you've had a Happy Thanksgiving!**  
**

Thing is my family is having it on Black Friday because it's the only date they can all come. Strange huh?

Legend:**  
**

"Talking."

"*Radio Talk*"

* * *

**Heartbeat**

"You've got to be kidding."

Armed with a flashlight, a hardhat, hand radio, and his waist tied by a rope Samuel Witwicky, or 'Spike' to his friends, both human and giant autonomous alien robots, looked into the dark crawl space of the ARK's ventilation. How did he get, pardon the pun, 'roped' into this?

"I kid you not Spike, This is where it went."

Oh yeah, Sideswipe somehow 'convinced' him to this.

The human turned to the red twin. "And what exactly is this thing you need again?"

"A spring component I need for ahh…" Ah, there's that suspicious pause. "…a special project I'm doing for the femme's. It got away from me when I was working on it and slipped down there and because the space is obviously too small for me and my hothead friend here. Yet, fortunately you just happen to be here and you're the perfect size to go after it as the best human ally that you are. So could you it, please?" And that 'charming' grin that could have Unicron coo at him.

An eyebrow rose and eyes glanced at the third party with them, wondering why Cliffjumper of all bots was a part of this and not the yellow twin (who, now that he thought about it, had monitor duty, so that explained why Red Alert hadn't come to find them. Now he was worried.). He always thought the red bot and the fearsome twins never got along, but on the ARK everyday you learn something new. The brunette teen had a bad feeling ever since he walked into the alien ship just under an hour ago wanting to hang with Bumblebee and/or maybe help out Wheeljack or Ratchet with anything in the lab or repair-bay. (Secretly wishing that Wheeljack didn't need help, saving Spike from the engineer's 'eccentric' projects.) However, Bumblebee was out on patrol in India and recent developments on Cybertron had forced the group of female Autobot's, 'femme's' Ratchet had forced the term on Spike with the threat of death by wrench slaps, to come to the ARK for repair, supplies and, by Jazz's lingo, "Catch up with their Main Mech's". And as a post-puberty teen he had an idea of what he meant, though he didn't want to know how "that" goes, so Spike just let them alone out of respect.

Even Optimus Prime, the great leader hid away from everyone to spend time with, ironic enough, the leader of said femme resistance group, Elita-1. Spike only encountered the pink chromed femme on passing and never formally met her in person-bot-uh nevermind. Yet, from the tales Bumblebee and Jazz told him about her she sounded like an awesome and kind Autobot warrior, especially from that look he spied Prime looking at her when she and the others arrived. Guess 4 million years apart does that to bots.

Yet now without Bumblebee to hang out with and the others occupied he was left to write in his journal about events he never got to write about when Sideswipe basically scooped him from the Rec-room to their current position, a lone back storage bay conveniently out of Red Alert's camera range. Oh this didn't look like a prank at all.

Right.

"Side's, any sentence involving you and 'special projects' alerts my survival instincts. My species may be younger than yours but I wasn't born yesterday," Spike folded his arms, ready to put his foot down.

"Gasp, Spike I'm shocked." Now he's hamming it up with the mock betrayal gasp. "I thought we were friends."

"A friend doesn't have my fight or flight responses go haywire over an obvious crummy prank setup like this."

A metal finger nudges his chest. "Hey! My setups aren't crummy…and this isn't a prank. Come on Cliffy tell him!"

"Don't call me 'Cliffy'." The red minibot growled at the frontliner, then looked to Spike. "Yeah, 'oily-servos' here lost the part and it fell down the shaft. Wheeljack calculated that it would have been caught down here but as you can see…" He held the explanation here knowing Spike got the point for his part in the retrieval.

"I don't know guys," Spike eyed the dark vent. "This just proves to me more suspicious and I don't see why it really has to be me, why can't you use cleaning drones for this?"

"Sigh, well you left me no choice Spike," Sideswipe kneeled down to level his optics to the human's eyes, lowering his voice box for only Spike to hear. "I know just the thing that could get you to go, it's something I think you human's call 'blackmail'."

Dark eyes blinked in surprise at blue optics. Prowl had warned him that the twins used many methods to get what they want, and it seems blackmail wasn't beneath them. "And what could you have on me that would make me say different?"

"Two words my squishy friend, 'sugar rush'."

A moment later wide eyes stared at the Cheshire cat grin. "H-How did you-!"

"Wonder what Chromia would think of you when you were the reason her poor ol' Ironhide had to stay in his berth on her first day here?"

"But it was an accident!"

"What me to tell Ironhide that?" The grin remained as the human deflated in defeat. "You get that part and I'll delete that particular memory file and they'll never know, deal?"

* * *

Oh Yuck! A cleaning drone missed a spot.

Shaking his hand of the slimy mess, Spike continued to crawl down the vent with an irritated frown. How can Sideswipe blackmail him like this and that dropping a chocolate bar in Ironhide's energon would cause the war veteran to get stomachache cramps or whatever alien robots call their energon tanks. It was an accident, which he should have told about sooner so that he wouldn't be in this situation now.

Flashing his light down further, Spike came up to a downward vent and crawled to the edge; a good four stories down. He peered over and shined his light down it and saw a reflective shine on the grilled vent covering. He got out the radio out and called back.

"Okay I think I see it, but you'll have to lower me a good forty feet."

"*Got it Spike,*" replied that infuriating twin. "*Check the rope and radio us when you're ready.*"

Checking and tightening the knot the human called back and checking that the rope was secure on the other end; he edged himself over and down the vent. Walking backward slowly and keeping the flashlight pointed down at the part, he just wanted to get out and be done with it.

"*Spike, how far are you from the bottom now?*"

"Twenty feet." He was slowly lowered. "Fifteen." Suddenly he was stopped and confused he looked back up. "Hey! What are-?"

"*Don't worry Spike, its low enough for the cleaning cloths to break the fall.*"

Spike had no time to comprehend it as the vent opening suddenly was far away.

* * *

Sideswipe held a small smile and giggle as the rope end disappeared.

"That was stupid and cruel Sides'," Cliffjumper was still wondering how the red twin involved him. "He's gonna scarp ya."

"A good laugh was just a bonus, my hot-headed friend, but not my true intention, you know that."

"Yeah, I know why, and I gotta admit I never thought you of all bots cared, but it's still cruel to the guy… And he's still gonna scrap ya."

He watched the frontliner just turn to the room's exit, a smile on his lip-plates and servos behind his back, as he walked away.

"I'll take it all with a smile, Cliffy."

"Whatever ya say Sideswipe, and don't call me 'Cliffy'!" The red devil bot grumbled and shook his head at the departing bot.

_Maybe if I, 'plead the fifth' I think is the term humans say,_ thought Cliffjumper. _I could avoid the threat of pissed off Bumblebee, because it's him I have to run from if he knew I was involved in any injury his favorite human might get._

* * *

He knew it! How could he have been so gullible! Scrap facing Ironhide's wrath, he's going to kill Sideswipe! He didn't know how, but he will! Oh, that's going be a nasty bruise.

Detangling himself from some large cloths in a type of basket, Spike glared up at the now twisted open covering to the vent. Thanks to his hardhat he wouldn't have a headache in the morning, but seriously he should've known better. He was careful sitting up from the obvious pain on his lower half, trying to find the best way to get out.

"Now I get the term, 'dropping in'. How literal."

The soft low feminine voice froze all actions.

The feeling of ice on his back slowed him from straightening his back and turning his head behind him the two occupants in the now identified quarters.

He didn't expect to be in this particular one. His back unfroze for him to quickly turn back and cover his eyes away from them.

"OH MY GOD! PRIME! MISS ELITA-1! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to drop in-d'oh! I mean invade your privacy-I was just helping-actually I was blackmailed into-and–oh-man! I'm gonna kill Sides and Cliff!-I'm so sorry! And-"

"Spike, breathe," came the gentle command of the Autobot leader. With a soft smile under his mask, and in his eyes he waited for the poor boy to catch his breath. He and his mate heard some strange sounds and spied a light coming from the vent above his cleaning station, a slight annoying interruption to their alone time. Yet, upon hearing the familiar voice of his young ally and Elita's curiosity they waited and listened. It was a slight surprise of seeing the young human fall through the vent and land on his cleaning cloths. He felt in his spark the amused reverberation from his mate as she took in the sight, and laughter in her optics at the boy's reaction upon seeing them and his broken explanation.

Upon hearing the mentioned red twin and, how odd, red minibot, he surmised what may have occurred.

"First, are you alright? That looked like quite a fall, and it's safe to look."

Uncovering his eyes, Spike turned back to the two and took in the scene.

The room, Optimus' obviously, was more furbished then he thought, framed pictures of familiar landscapes graced the walls, a Grand Canyon dawn photo for one, beside the hologram scenes of some on Cybertron. He was on a metal platform with a sink-like feature with the cloth box he was in atop it. Across from the platform, on a bed-like berth, were the revered leaders of the Autobot faction. Optimus laid mostly on the berth with Elita-1 pressing her frame to his side and her arms around the big mech's waist. Hear headdress-like helm lay on a shoulder as they looked back on the human.

"Um…I'm fine, Prime…" Spike hesitantly answered. "Uhh…I'll sure have a bruise the size of Texas on my 'landing pad' tomorrow though."

The Prime chuckled at the remark, then looked to Elita who gave a concerned quizzical look. Spike watched the exchange between them as he saw the look on the femme's face was then changed from concern to relieved amusement, Prime probably explained to her of Spike's figure of speech. Ratchet had explained to him about the deep connection between 'bond-mates' on Cybertron, but to see it for himself left him in awe at how just by looking at them he could feel the… Ratchet also said that a word for 'love' was not something they had on their planet, but to a human, he couldn't describe it anymore than a great devotion of love the two leaders had to each other.

Feeling he was further invading something greater than privacy he moved to leave the basket and quarters when a shot of pain reached his brain and he hissed. "OW!"

Two helms instantly looked over.

Optimus frowned in concern at him. "Spike is anything broken?"

"No," Spike grabbed his left leg as he reassured the two Cybertronians. "Must've sprained something in the fall. Don't worry about it, nothing a day of rest can't cure."

He looked up at the sound of moving metal.

"Goodness, humans really are more so resilient than fragile. Such a strange concept, but so like our stubborn mechs." Elita-1 got up from the berth and walked to the platform to look closer at Spike. She smiled at him. "So I meet the famous Spike Witwicky. Optimus and the others spoke fondly of you and your co-creator, or 'father' I believe is the title you use. You've contributed much for our mechs and from Ratchet's recommendation, being a pest to Megatron's plans. Chromia wanted to show her gratitude to you for that particular fact."

_Before or after she squishes me for Ironhide's pains, _Spike warily thought as he blushed at Elita's praise and he turned to face her. "Uh, a real honor to formally meet you Miss Elita-1, but I'd hoped this meeting was under better circumstances. Ow!"

Elita frowned at the human's pained hiss and bowed closer to him. "…Mr. Witcicky, if you will permit me, I could scan you for any anomalies. Don't worry I'm a trained field medic and have downloaded on human anatomy and basic first aid."

Spike blinked at her in surprise, glanced at the silent Optimus on the berth, then back at her scratching the back of his head. "Uh…yeah, it's fine Miss Elita-1, and it's just 'Spike' and if you see my dad he goes by 'Sparkplug'."

The femme smiled. "I'll keep note of that, 'Spike'." She moved her servos toward him, one under his lower half and the other to support his back, and lifted Spike up from the basket toward her frame. "By the way, you can call me Elita-1, and I'd warn you about calling Chromia a 'miss'."

Spike waited as he knew her scanners flowed over him. "Hmm, it seems aside from the mass broken blood vessels around your gluteus maximus…" Optimus softly chuckled at Spike's blush. "Your knee tendons have been exceedingly stretched beyond their capabilities and are greatly irritated. So, as you said, a few days rest with a warm then cold compress around the area should help. You can walk but don't put too much pressure on it. I believe a 'crutch' and 'knee brace' would be needed."

"Wow, uh, thanks…Elita-1," thanked Spike. "I think dad bought some recently for something like this in our guest quarters, so I'll get them. Thanks again."

However, the femme didn't lower the boy.

Spike curiously looked back up at the frozen Elita as she now looked at him with a sad gleam in his optics. Optimus noticed this and hesitantly sat up further on the berth then leaned toward her.

"Elita?"

Her blue optics blinked and she sadly smiled. "…Forgive me…but Spike if I could ask for a… favor?"

"Uh…okay, what is it that you need?"

"I had recently discovered something about human events from teletran-1…and I wanted to experience one special event in particular… but you don't really have to. Yet, I just… wanted to know what it's like, just once in this lifetime…" Her sad vent made Spike's heart constrict.

"Oh, Elita…" came Optimus' sympathetic rumble from the berth. He must know what she meant through their bond.

Still completely in the dark, Spike looked at them in deep thought. He felt apprehensive about what Elita-1 would want from him, which he felt he may not be able to do. And what event did she mean, knowing that the alien robots were still comprehending the complex diversity of customs of the people of Earth, some going horribly wrong and/or out of proportion. Yet, he knew he shouldn't be scared, this was a leader of the Autobots, the mate of Optimus Prime. And…he wasn't a guy that would turn away from a sad expression on a girls face, even a Cybertronian.

"Sure I'd love to help. I don't really mind, Elita-1," he smiled at her grateful smile, but it slipped when she pulled him closer to her frame as she gracefully walked back to the berth.

The boy gave a small cry of surprise as the femme gently maneuvered him with her servos to lay him in the crook of her arms and held him to her warm chest plates. His hardhat slipped from his head and he grabbed it and held to himself to prevent it from falling. Elita then moved to her previous place on the berth beside Optimus and moved to lay next to the big mech. Spike looked back up to Optimus with a questioning, slightly surprised look. The Autobot leader looked back down at him with soft sad optics and just shrugged, before moving himself closer to Elita then moved his right arm to wrap around her back shoulders and place his hand on her arm, near where Spike's head laid, the other wrapped under her arms. Elita pulled the boy closer, smiled at him than gratefully at her bond-mate, then dimmed her optics and laid her helm back on the big shoulder, the mech soon followed with his blue helm atop hers.

At first the human teen didn't understand what was going on until realization hit him like a warhead.

He was small in her arms; she was cradling him on a 'bed', in the arms of her loving mate.

In his head, at a different perspective, the scene looked like a couple quietly enjoying their time with their newborn child.

Oh, man this was overwhelming. He remembered Ratchet and Ironhide telling him about life before the war, particularly about the time when bonded Cybertronians used to pro-create new life with Spark merging and raised protoform Sparklings, their word for Cybertronian babies, in a way like human babies. Yet, when the war broke out sparkling births became rare, and neutral factions taking care of sparklings were often caught in the crossfire between the warring factions until there were none left. Bumblebee told him that he and Bluestreak were among the last generation of Cybertron's sparklings. Now all Cybertronians were built for the purpose of fighting the war, never having the stage of 'sparkling-hood'. For all species in any war, the loss of raising new life was a horrible major price. Knowing this he felt he shouldn't be a factor in engaging something like this. For the young human it was too much for him to continue playing along.

He thought about telling the two about the uncomfortable thoughts when he then remembered some comments Jazz said in the rec-room about some not-so-secret confessions femmes had made over the vorns after the last sparkling birth.

"_Sometimes I find femmes, sobbing in the dark, crying for a chance to raise a new life. From what I heard, Elita-1, when she went by Ariel, often teased Orion, our Optimus, about one day having one with him, just to get him to sputter. Yet, she never lied on the dream of it. Now though, she has higher priorities, she won't sob openly but whenever she looked at either Bee or 'Streak, you could see that hidden longing in her optics."_

When she said she saw something humans do as a special event, she must have seen pictures of couples with their children together for the first time, and seeing them brought those painful longing feelings in her. He then thought at how humans, even he, take for granted on how they viewed their first years of life and how parents must've felt about raising a new life, both the good and bad, and for some to never experience it. Why not let the kind leaders, who had lost so much long before his species existence, have this moment for themselves?

So Spike kept silent and respectfully just laid in her gentle embrace, a chance maybe no other human may get in any lifetime. So he relaxed, even placing his head on her chest-plates, it was then he heard a curious sound.

A rhythmic continuous thrumming within the femme leader's frame. Yet, the human knew what it was, the life-force of all Cybertronians, the Spark. It sounded like a heartbeat but it was so much more.

Closing his eyes and listening to Elita's spark, a faint thought came to his mind. A far away thought that brought the stinging of coming tears in his eyes.

_Mom held me like this. Held me with a smile on her face and dad embracing her in their bed on my first day home._

It felt like vorns for the three sentient beings, only eight minutes had passed before Optimus onlined his optics. He smiled down at the two others, and then gently nudged Elita.

"Elita, I believe Spike needs to go the repair-bay now for Ratchet to really take a look at him."

Spike himself groggily opened his eyes; he nearly fell asleep in the warm hold. With a small yawn he sat up straighter, though his sore backside protested.

Elita softly vented and smiled. "Of course." She then looked at the human. "Thank you for indulging me in my strange request."

"Uh, no problem, Elita-1," softly assured the boy.

"Would you like me to carry you to Ratchet, Spike?"

"Thank you for the offer, but I've intruded on your private time long enough and I think I'm okay to walk there myself. So, you and Prime can go back to enjoy your time together."

"Very much like our stubborn mechs," Elita smiled and moved to lower Spike down to the floor. Gently making sure he lands on his good leg, she released him from her hold. He looked back at the two mates, when a reflective shine caught his eyes.

It was that blasted spring component.

With an irritated look on his face Spike bent down, avoiding using his sprained knee, and picked up the part; remembering his promise to somehow kill two certain bots.

He sighed then looked back to the two leaders. "Sorry again for 'dropping in'." Static chuckles answered him. "I'll see ya around Prime, and it was wonderful meeting you, Elita-1."

"And a true pleasure in meeting you, Spike and thank you."

"Mind that knee on your way there," cautioned the Prime as the human limped to the opening door. "Oh, and Spike?" The boy's head poked back in to the hidden smirk under the mech's mask. "After you are treated, have Ratchet escort you to confront Ironhide about chocolate bars and energon."

A pale incredulous look came on Spike and he tried to protest but thought better of it; it was better not to question and/or expect a Prime to tell you how he knew things.

"I'll, uh, do that Prime, thanks…uh…bye." And with that the head disappeared from the still open doorway.

"What a remarkable youth," giggled Elita.

"That he is," smiled Optimus. "Sometimes I forget he's not an autobot, but then again I don't regret claiming him as one."

"Hmm…" She laid her helm on his shoulder and after a moment of quiet she sadly laughs. "Such a fool."

Her mate looked at her, surprised. "Do you think my thought is foolish?"

"No, not at all. It's a wonderful compliment and a form of trust you have on the human youth. I was referring to your resident red twin terror."

"Ah, yes. I had made a mental note on figuring about a punishment for him and Cliffjumper, which I'm surprised Jumper was involved in this prank with Sideswipe."

"Don't be too hard on them; this may have been my doing."

Optimus gave a quizzical nudge in their spark-link and questioning frown in his optics.

"When I was researching on Teletran-1," his mate explained. "Sideswipe happened to be there to keep me company as you worked with Prowl. He saw me look on about how human 'mothers' raised their young and I confessed to him my envy on some pictures of how they held them with such devotion."

She gratefully appreciated the mechs comforting hug. "He commented on me to experience it with a minibot, Bumblebee he of course brought up, but even a minibot was too big to be held. He said a human adult was the perfect size, but a silly notion, even when the Autobots have many grateful human supporters, they have few human friends. Even so, it would have been too awkward to ask those friends personally for such a ridiculous and probably humiliating request…"

"But he wanted you to at least have the experience before you returned to Cybertron, so he set this up as a prank to have Spike help you," finished Prime, finally understanding the puzzle. So Cliff just wanted to be involved to making Elita happy. What strange and wonderful bots he had in his army. "It was still cruel on Spike. But I'll take your words in consideration Elita."

"Thank you Optimus, because now I have a wonderful inspiration and a memory for a future, a slim far away future, but one that I will continue to fight for more so with greater ferocity," she nuzzled his mask and practically climbed on top of him. "But, aside from that memorable interruption, where were we?" She softly asked with a smirking tilt of her helm.

A rumble sounded within Optimus' frame and he held the femme to him. He sent a silent command to the door to close, smirking at the small vanishing shadow of their eavesdropper walking away from the doorframe.

* * *

Maybe he should hold back from killing Sideswipe.

Carefully limping away from the now closed door, he had stopped to rub his knee when he heard the leader's compliments; he was irritated at the mentioned Sideswipe but hearing Elita's confession made him rethink things.

So Sideswipe didn't truly lie about working on a special project for the femmes, or for just Elita-1, but this was by far the most sincere but most stupid prank the red twin ever did.

Oh, he was happy knowing he helped Elita-1 gain a pleasant memory, but he hated how he fell for the prank and can't wait to get back at Sideswipe.

_A little mention on his involvement for my injury should have Ratchet and dad on his helm, but I'll have Bee go easy on Cliffjumper; he was just an accomplice. Better get ready for whatever wrath Ironhide and Chromia will put on me._

With a smile, his hardhat under an arm, and tossing the spring component in his other hand one last time, Spike carefully but quickly limped off to the repair-bay, he really didn't want to stick anywhere near the Prime's quarters anymore than he did already.

* * *

AN: This story flowed into my head when I saw a picture of Elita-1 holding a sparkling Hotrod. It made me think on what she had felt not being able to have a sparkling in the great war.

Child loss and unable to raise a family is always a terrible factor in war, no matter the species.

So i added humor with Spike and falling for a Sideswipe prank, and blackmailing about chocolate and energon is lame but the only this I could come up with.

Anyway hoped you've enjoy it and not get bored by the paragraphs. Again have a Happy Thanksgiving. Bye.


End file.
